At the sound of the entrance opening, the kitchen workers paused their work. It was not often that they received visitors - especially not the Lady Yue around these areas.
The two old ladies wiped their hands on their aprons and smiled at Ling Yue: "Ah! What a pleasant surprise! We haven't seen you in such a long time, Lady Yue. You were just an infant a few years ago…"
The two ladies watched Ling Yue grow up. They were her nannies at one point, but retired to the kitchen once Ling Yue was mature enough to attend classes.
"Was there anything wrong with today's meal?" Old lady Qui quickly asked. There was no reason for the Lady to show up in the kitchen quarters - unless something had went wrong. She could have sent a servant, Loan even. The last time the Lady stepped foot in the kitchen, she had thrown a tantrum and requested desserts in place for all her meals. What a pain...
"I just wanted to talk to you two about something…" Ling Yue began, "I want to lose weight."
A dead silence followed as everyone stared at her. The previous Yue had forbid her servants from talking about her weight. If she ever heard about the topic, she would punish that person cruelly. She refused to acknowledge that she was fat, thus had never thought of losing weight.
To hear this coming from her own mouth...
"My child, finally!" Old lady Kharin cried.
"Kharin! Watch it, impertinence!" Old lady Qui scolded, although she herself felt like saying the same sentence.
Ling Yue laughed softly. "Relax, old lady Qui! I was stupid before. It seems like facing death at the bottom of the cold lake had awoken me; I wish to change."
"That was terribly careless of you, my Lady, to slip and fall into the deep waters! If you want the lotus flower in the lake you could've asked for a servant to fetch it," old lady Kharin sighed. "Don't do that again, you might lose your life!"
Slip and fall? So that's how it is, that pig Ting Fu…. He obviously kicked her down there and watched as she drowned!
"I'll be more careful next time," Ling Yue tilted her head, "but I'd like to talk about how I want to lose weight. I want to change my diet. Here, I'll write it down, please follow these instructions…"
The three women gathered together. After a while, the two old ladies' shocked gasps could be heard.
"But my Lady, is it fine to put such herbs inside a dish?" Old lady Kharin exclaimed. Some of the herbs were known to be poisonous!
"Just follow my orders." Ling Yue said sternly, "I know what I'm doing. I've been reading up on a lot of medical books in my free time."
Well, that was a lie. The original Ling Yue obviously didn't read on shit. (`皿´＃)
The old women were clearly skeptical. They weren't foolish enough to believe Ling Yue's blatant cover-up, but they couldn't disobey their Lady's orders. With much effort, they finally agreed to prepare the dishes as Ling Yue asked.
Such herbs helped build up her body. Although some had weak poison, they can be balanced out when cooked with other herbs. They were the most crucial ingredients that will detoxify her body and burn out much of the fat.
The food would taste bad, and the burning would torture her, but that was the quickest way Ling Yue could lose weight.
She wrote down another list of herbs and handed them to Loan. "Fetch me these, Loan. Also, get me these…" She asked for a pack of a hundred acupuncture needles, pestle and mortar, glass tubes and other lab instruments she could think of.
They called her the Devil's Hand Physician after all. She had the ability to kill or save with her craft. Needles were her weapon. She knew the acupuncture points in the human body like the back of her hand.
In these times when her body was useless, all she possessed to defend herself was poison.
After Loan brought back the herbs, she'd start compounding the toxins immediately. Somehow, she had the feeling she'd need them very soon…
Old lady Qui served the new, improved meal in place of Loan as the girl went out to get Ling Yue's items with haste. As Ling munched over her meal, she contemplated her actions from then onward.
Her father seemed like a decent man. She was an orphan in her previous life, so she had never known that feeling of having a parent.
She looked forward to meeting the Clan Master Hong Yue.